May 25, 2010

Michael Bryant not guilty

Politics - and journalism - make strange bedfellows.
All charges against Ontario's former Attorney-General Michael Bryant over the fatal altercation between cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard and Bryant's car in Yorkville last summer have been dropped.
For details on the case and why the charges were dropped, visit this link.
Given that Bryant shepherded O.P.P. Commissioner Julian Fantino's odious
'50-over' street racing law into effect - that's the one which turns 62-year old Grandmas into criminals yet does nothing whatsoever to stop street racing in our province - you wouldn't think I'd have much sympathy for Mr. Bryant.
Certainly, the biking community - with which I seem to be having some issues despite the fact that we all want bikeys to be safer on our streets; we just don't agree on how to make that happen - is already smelling a rat, figuring Bryant's connections helped pave the way for this dismissal.
This despite extraordinary precautions having been taken to ensure fairness, and the appearance of fairness, including bringing a prosecutor in from British Columbia to handle the case.
But from the agreed-upon facts of the case, who among us might not have panicked, if following what by all accounts was a lovely 12th wedding anniversary celebration with our partner, we had been accosted by an agitated and inebriated young man while driving through Yorkville in our convertible with the top down on a lovely summer's night?
Just as Sheppard's recent record of conflicts involving other motorists, his unusual - not to say scary - appearance, and an (alleged) domestic incident earlier that evening at his girlfriend's residence which involved a police call, should not and were not deemed to be relevant to the issue at hand, neither were Bryant's former occupation, his passing of this horrible law - nor the fact that he was driving an expensive car - relevant.
It was, as Bryant says, a "tragedy".
What is relevant to the current aforementioned discussion about bikes and cars: if a bikey picks a fight with a car, he's gonna lose, every time.

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It's interesting that the defence and prosecution came up with all those instances of Sheppard acting aggressively towards motorists and that the speed of Bryant's car was less than half that reported by eye witnesses. I also saw no good explanation why Bryant crossed to the opposite side of the road, causing Sheppard to strike obstacles. There's a whole lot there that we aren't going to hear about because this has been kept from going to trial. Here is one time where an extended trial would be worth every penny of taxpayers' money.

“Two-tier justice means that those who can afford a legal dream team can buy their way out of jail,” – Michael Bryant

You forget that there is a youtube video out there documenting the original confrontation in which Mr. Bryant is shown to deliberately ram the deceased with his car - not once, but twice. In our legal system, that counts as assault with a deadly weapon, and with the video playing the role of smoking gun, a conviction was a foregone conclusion.

Sure, Sheppard was scary and by no means a model of good cyclist behaviour, and Bryant was right to try to get away, but was it really reasonable to switch to the wrong side of the street and cause Sheppard to strike immobile objects?

If you want to improve the tone of the discussion among road users, you would do well to stop using such a cutesy and dismissive term as 'bikeys'. (For one thing, 'bikies' (note spelling) means motorcycle gang members in some places.)

I know a lot of people who took sides with the cyclist. But, ask anyone what they would do if a cyclist jumped on their car and tried to attack them, and the answer is "Drive away". Thankfully, the system worked.